Working with Educational Tools

Flight Path Experience
I learned so much and discovered how much I still have to learn. At the beginning of this course I was very naïve and unrealistic, now I think I have a much clearer idea of the work involved in creating an online learning environment. I think the biggest surprise was how long each activity takes to make. I know that there are many excellent activities available on the web, like Merlot, but sometimes they don’t have what I need and adapting activities often takes longer than making them myself.
I am more aware now of my strengths and weaknesses in using technology. I was forced to accept that I am lacking in computer skills and yet I frequently solved problems by sheer persistence. I am flexible, which is essential in Mexico, as we don’t have a lot of economic resources, finding cheap ways around expensive problems. I have also learned that being part of a team makes all of us more creative and that constructive criticism can be both positive and welcome as it helps me produce more professional materials.

ELearning Toolkit Experience
I think it helped a lot that I have had some experience with blogs and that last semester Catherine explained about how to make a blog more interesting by adding widgets. I was more apprehensive when it came to Moodle as I had only had a short one hour course in my university before tackling UBC’s Moodle and of course as Murphy’s Law is always present the two sites do not have the same features. This was frustrating and challenging at the same time.
I discovered that I am not as patient as maybe I should be and so instead of waiting for advice I tended to investigate and use the trial and error method until I found a solution. In my Digital story I had a lot of problems, but I think I found some creative solutions and I learned a lot from my mistakes and as soon as I can I will buy a camera and try to make another story but with my students this time. My only complete failure was the flash page in which after so many failed attempts I was prepared to pay someone until Dilip took pity on me and gave me some tips. I still have many tools to try out and my colleagues have inspired me to re-try tools like Prezi which was one of my failures last semester. All in all it has been a good experience and one which I will never forget.

Assessing my Portfolio with SECTIONS
Students
I have tried out some of my activities with students and they told me that they like having the instructions in English and Spanish and that they felt more confident being able to have several attempts. One exercise didn’t work and so I have removed it. My students like being able to criticize the activities, they are hard judges and they have also made some constructive suggestions which I will try to comply with.
Ease of Use
My younger students will have no problems with the Moodle platform, but I suspect that I will have to spend at least a couple of sessions with my older students who have had less access to technology.
Cost Structure
At the moment I have no expenses, but there are some tools that I would like to use that have paid options. I am considering paying to use more options in Hot Potatoes as it is such a flexible tool. I think that the modules I have designed so far are educationally useful, but I am curious to see what some of the paid options could offer.
Teaching and Learning
I have struggled to find authentic materials and to create materials which lead to knowledge which can be used in my student’s professional life. This was one of my promises to my students in the past they have felt that the 60 hour English course has not been useful outside of the classroom. By creating part of my course online I have tried to use the media options to give my students the opportunity to combine their knowledge and to produce legal discourses which can then be used outside of the classroom.
Interactivity
My students and I feel that receiving immediate feedback is one of the benefits of using a LMS. My students also mentioned the hints option as they felt it was essential for beginners as it gave them confidence and made them feel more autonomous.
Organizational Issues
I feel that I am still a novice in this section and I plan to ask one of my colleagues to give me a short course on how to use some of the administration options which I am not sure about.
Novelty
I think that there is a variety of activities and I have uploaded material in several formats, however, I am conscious that in the future the novelty value will depend on my willingness to stay abreast of new emerging technologies.
Speed
I think that none of my activities takes too long to open. I cut my photos and tried to make the videos short as I am aware that bandwidth problems will occur if my material is over a certain limit of megabytes.

Reference
Boyes, J., Dowie, S. and Rumzan, I. (2005). Using the SECTIONS Framework to Evaluate Flash Media. Innovate 2(1). Accessed 13th April, 2010, at: http://www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol2_issue1/Using_the_SECTIONS_Framework_to_Evaluate_Flash_Media.pdf

Where Do I Go Now?
I think my first step after finishing this course will be to sit down and figure out what I can do and what I still need to learn. There are so many tools I did not have time to try out. I have agreed to give a talk to teachers in another State about using technology in the classroom as this will force me to experiment with as many tools as possible in the next two months. I know that deadlines are an extrinsic stimulus, but some things are hard to change.
Another step I will be taking is to complete my Legal English course online and to design some questionnaires so that I can have feedback about which activities worked and which ones had problems. I think it is important to evaluate content and process as this will also help me to be more aware of the different learning styles my students have and prefer to use online.
Finally I will be looking for some courses about different methods of grading online and also how to use some of the administrative tools which I didn’t explore thoroughly as I was scared of losing my work. I am a kinesthetic learner and I think that to become confident about using all the Moodle platform tools I would like to have a hands-on session with an expert to give me the confidence to really make use of all of the available options. I like to use a variety of formative activities with my students and grading is one of my biggest problems as sometimes I have problems trying to mark and sum up all the grades, especially when some activities should be weighted more heavily than others. I am grateful to Franc and to all my colleagues for sharing so much and for motivating me when I doubted my abilities. I look forward to meeting you all again one day online if not in person.
Clare

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